This invention relates to a floating waterfowl decoy used for hunting which is both self-ballasting and self-righting.
Many floating artificial decoys which represent waterfowl are known in the field. My earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,578 discloses a self-ballasting decoy comprised of a floating body which represents the waterfowl and which carries attached to its underside a ballast tank. The ballast tank is formed by an elongated hollow tube having a water opening and an air duct. As the decoy rests on the water, the opening in the ballast tank lies beneath the waterline and the air duct extends upward from the tube portion of the ballast tank to a point above the waterline. When the decoy is set into the water, water enters the ballast tank through the opening and, as the ballast tank fills with water, air escapes through the air duct. Further, when the decoy is picked up by the hunter, water easily pours out of the ballast tank from the opening as air flows into the ballast tank through the air duct. This type of decoy with a self-ballasting keel is sold under the trademark Aqua-Keel.TM. by Carry-Lite, Inc.
Another type of water-filled keel for a floating decoy is known as the water keel, which is just a straight, long hollow plastic tube connected underneath the body of the decoy. Unlike the Aqua-Keel, the water keel does not act as a ballast chamber, but water nonetheless passes through the open tube so that the water keel acts much like a rudder for the decoy.
One problem associated with the Aqua-Keel and water keel type decoys is that a hunter in a blind on shore or in a boat may throw the decoy (and probably several of them) out onto the water, but the decoy may land on its back and not tip over to an upright position. An upside-down decoy is itself useless for attracting birds for the hunt and may destroy entirely the effect of several decoys laid out as a small flock.